Johnson unveils nurses' funding boost

The government has set out plans to provide £50m of funding to double the amount of time nurses spend on wards.

Health secretary Alan Johnson announced the move on Thursday, which he said would help improve efficiency and develop more productive wards.

The programme would also give nurses more over how their ward is organised to enable them to spend more time with patients.

It also aims to reduce meal waste from seven to one per cent, and to cut medicine round time by 63 per cent.

Johnson said he had been "deeply impressed" by the productive ward pilot at Nottingham City Hospital.

"By taking small but significant steps, nurses have freed up time to make enormous improvements to patient care," he said.

"The programme works because nurses have total ownership. The power is in their hands to make changes."

He said he wanted to work with the Royal College of Nursing and ward sisters to roll the programme out, "increasing the time nurses spend with patients and enabling them to do the job they were trained for".

RCN chief executive Dr Peter Carter said he was "very pleased" with the move. "More than anything, nurses wish to provide high quality care," he said.

"Frontline staff work on wards, day in day out and are best placed to devise and implement the changes that will allow them to spend more time at the bedside caring for patients."